Buongiorno, Arezzo

After two weeks of traveling around Italy, the six of us students were thrilled to finally arrive in Arezzo!

My home away from home, Residence Le Gagliarde, is charming and centrally located. Just a five minute walk from the historic city center, my lovely one bedroom apartment even sports a view of the cathedral bell tower!

But don’t get any ideas. In a not-so-shocking turn of events, after just a few hours of relaxation, Donna (our wonderful program director) picked us up and we were off to our next event — the joust celebration. Yes, that’s correct. The joust!

Let’s take a few steps back. Arezzo has a lengthy history. After being dominated by the Romans until approximatley 300AD, the city culturally and economically collapsed with that of the Roman Empire. During these dark ages, Arezzo became an episcopal seat. In other words, starting in the 3rd century, the exact succession of Arezzo bishops is known by name, an critically important timeline tool for historians.

Arezzo threw out the bishop’s control in 1098 and operated as an independent city state until the end of the 14th century, when Florence overtook the city. Upon being overtaken by the Florentine, Arezzo entered a period of financial and cultural decline. While this was bad for the locals of the time, it preserved much of Arezzo’s medieval culture. (Hence, the joust.) Arezzo re-gained independence at the end of the 18th century with the help of French troops, and has since been the capital of the Arezzo provence.

Now, as I said before, I walked into 13th century Arezzo, whose four neighborhoods were busy with their Saturday night, celebratory dinner to get the jouster’s “pumped up” for the Sunday event. The drinking, eating, and dancing continued through the early morning.

The Sunday joust was like nothing I have ever experienced. The city completely shuts down for the jousting event. Hundreds of men and women dress up in medieval costumes & parade through the city. There’s even a select group of people who dress up as the noble families of the 13th century. I kid you not, it was as if I was LITERALLY in 13th century Arezzo.

Us common folk watched the full event in Piazza Grande and energetically waved our neighborhood flags. To be honest, the healthy rivalry was sort of refreshing. No bitterness or big egos, just organic, friendly competition.

I’m sad to say that my neighborhood lost, but it didn’t matter in the end. My first day in Arezzo, and first taste of Medieval culture, was exceptional.

The day after the joust, I settled into a much more regular (and manageable) schedule. After Italian class in the morning and a lite lunch of verdure & prosciutto at Monica’s cafe, I indulge in Art History or Italian History. Then I’m left to wander the streets of Arezzo.

Some highlights from my first week in Arezzo:

Antique fair

On the first Sunday of every month, the largest antique fair in all of Italy comes to Arezzo. I guarantee you that my mom and Kris would have spent hours looking through the “mid century modern” wooden desks and velvet chairs. I walked away with some goodies.

Food

Italian food is simple and delicious. Check out the clam risotto and pesto gnocchi, both from cafes that serve local, fresh produce. Absolutely delicious!

Piazza Grande

The cool thing about Piazza Grande is that it’s a mix of old and new. It was built during the middle ages but bombed during WWII. Only some of the buildings survived. Thus, 20th century buildings neighbor 14th century buildings, and it’s interesting to look at the striking differences in construction.

Architecture aside, Piazza Grande is lively and full of energy. It’s a great place to recharge with a quick caffe or relax with a long, smooth glass of chianti. I’ve done both.

That’s all for now! Looking forward to reporting what I learn in my first few lectures…